Circumferential slots based decoupled wideband MIMO antenna for 5G and sub-6 GHz applications

Abstract

This paper investigates a small size 2 × 2 wideband multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna covering frequency band of 2.61 to 5.52 GHz. The antenna structure consists of elliptical ring patch with multiple circumferential slots. The edge-to-edge separation between the patches are kept 3.6 mm with volumetric dimensions of 30 × 46 × 1.6 mm3. The narrow slits are etched in the tapered ground plane to obtain the wideband characteristics. The electromagnetic coupling is improved more than 16 dB by employing the neutralization technique. The measured average gain and radiation efficiency of the proposed antenna are above 2.61dBi and 83.54%, respectively across the operating band. In addition to that, the important MIMO diversity parameters are investigated. The group delay and signal analysis in different orientations are also studied to ensure the quality performance of the antenna. The proposed MIMO antenna is simulated using CST microwave studio and further validated with the measurements. In addition to that, the parallel and orthogonal configuration of 4 × 4 MIMO antennas are analyzed by extending the proposed 2 × 2 MIMO design. The 4-port MIMO antennas exhibit the operating frequency bands varying from 2.80 to 5.58 GHz and 3.4 to 5.52 GHz, respectively for parallel and orthogonal MIMO configurations. The diversity parameters of 4-port MIMO antennas are calculated and compared with the measured results to verify its practical applications. Finaly, the SAR analysis of the antenna is presented at 3.08 and 5.20 GHz for 1/10 g tissues and are found 0.111/0.106 and 0.079/0.063 W K−1g−1, respectively. The proposed MIMO antenna designs are suitable for modern high-speed communication for 5G and sub-6 GHz frequency bands.